BEHIND BARS 2009

In the single channel video BEHIND BARS I play a character essentially made of and dressed in black and white bars, both in barcode and simple stripe form. I wear an amalgamate hand-sewn costume, referencing early 20th century nurse uniforms and French maid attire, with a bit of Harajuku girl obsessive exaggeration thrown in. The walls, floors, props, and makeup are likewise striped to make my character indistinguishable from her surroundings. The optic effect is both illusionary and unsettling.

Slow, drone-heavy music plays in the background revealing lyrics: “You spend half of the morning…just trying to wake up…half the evening, just trying to calm down…etc.” (Smog) that begin to illuminate the context of the scenario: my character is a bartender. As my character goes through the simple motions of straightening herself, guzzling what appears to be alcohol from black & white striped bottles, peering at the viewer through striped glasses, recoiling, stumbling, and recovering this scenario is further described. The title of the piece is a pun-- my character is literally and figuratively behind bars.

BEHIND BARS addresses the stagnancy of high-energy, long hour jobs, the uncertainty of self-medication, and the Sisyphean nature of addiction. The gaze goes back and forth, the bars blur with the scans, and intention is compromised with the reality that we are all providers and customers, gaze givers and receivers, and internal and external critics simultaneously.